Railroads spend a significant amount of time and resources to control vegetation around railroad tracks. Vegetation control provides a number of benefits to railroad tracks and railroad operation. Vegetation control improves sight distance for visibility of trains and at railroad crossings to avoid hazards at intersections. Vegetation control maintains a clearance zone for railroad right-of-ways and improves sight distance and safety along track segments between crossings. Vegetation control also provides proper drainage around tracks and reduces damage to signal and communication lines on tracks. In a number of jurisdictions, vegetation control is required by law.
Railroad companies employ in-house and third-party vegetation control inspectors and engineers who implement vegetation control programs, notably within track and right-of-way clearance zones. These programs are very time and resource consuming, and are difficult to implement and keep up. Therefore it would be desirable to have systems and methods that take into account at least some of these issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.